


The Brightest Stars

by imaginaryinspiration



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU where there are no monsters and no Mt. Ebbot, Angst, Best Friends, Death, Depression, Drowning, Female Chara, Female Frisk, Platonic Relationships, Stars, Yellow Flowers, no monsters, pretty much no happiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 06:31:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12858801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginaryinspiration/pseuds/imaginaryinspiration
Summary: "You are the crack of sunlight, the crack of the dawn, in my dim world."Falling, falling, deep down into a hole, and this time, there is no hand to pull Chara out of her pit of depression.Frisk and Chara are the closest of friends. Until something happens that will change Chara's life forever.Yellow flowers.





	The Brightest Stars

 There was once a girl who had no name. Her parents simply did not care enough to give her one. Her parents then died when she was young, and so she had to live on her own. She met another child her age named Chara and they became good friends. Chara found it awfully weird this girl had no name.

So the two young girls set out and tried to find a suitable name. It’s hard to come up with a good name when you are 8 years old, so Chara and the girl looked around to find a good name. Krickett didn’t work. Neither did Dandelion Fluff. Finally, when the girls got so tired of trying to find a name, they came up with the perfect idea. Frisk! 

        Once Chara and Frisk were a bit older, they thought this name was childish and silly, but it fitFrisk’s personality. She was the happiest twelve-year-old you could ever see! She was not only cheery herself, she brought warmth to strangers’ hearts with her smile. Chara was prone to feel sad, so with Frisk in her life, she became a happy person too! Chara loved Frisk with all her heart, more than anyone else she had ever known. 

Now, Frisk and Chara love to spend time together. whether they are talking, appreciating each other’s silent company, or humming together. They used to play tag, do the monkey bars in the nearest park, or see who could jump rope the longest. Now, the two girls just spend time together in different ways. It did not matter what they were doing, only that they did it together.

You can hardly tell that Frisk is an orphan. She is just so happy all the time! That’s why these two are the closest as can be. But this is also the reason that the only person who is close toFrisk is Chara.

Frisk is never sad.And that’s why Chara is not sad anymore. Chara is happy.Frisk is happy. They are both happy, together forever.

Chara is happy, with Frisk, she thought. Frisk is the joy in the darkness of her life, the darkness of the deep hole she often mentally falls into, a hole of depression and anxiety. 

Depression caused by her childhood, when her twin brother died when he was a few months old, and when her mother died a few months later because of the loss of a child. Though Chara has convinced herself she has a happy life. She thinks she is happy because her father provides everything necessary for a happy life.

_It’s amazing how easy it is to trick yourself._

* * *

Frisk and I were sitting under the stars. It was a late summer night, with crickets chirping and cicadas buzzing. We loved watching the stars. We’d been doing this ever since we were little kids, and it always cheered me up to spend time with her. She was my closest––and, well, my only––friend.

“Hey, you see those stars? The ones I’m pointing at. Right there. Those stars are brighter than the others! And they’re so close together.” Frisk said to me.

“Those stars are us! There’s two of them, and it looks like they’re hugging each other!” She gasped and continued on.

“That’s cool. Maybe we’ll be stars one day. Imagine: Chara and Frisk: the brightest stars you’ll ever see!” I responded.

“Yeah! No one could outshine us!”

We burst into laughter thinking about that. But, then that one phrase. “The brightest stars burn the quickest”, popped into my head.

But I pushed it out. Can’t be negative now!

Frisk and I just laid there for awhile, staring at the stars. Her company was enough for me. There was silence, but it was a comfortable silence, not an awkward one.

Then next day,Frisk and I were at the park. It was hot, andFrisk loved ice cream more than any other food, and there was an ice cream truck, so we got some ice cream.

There were children playing on the equipment behind us, though some were pulling on their mommy’s hands, begging to get some ice cream.

“Welp. What'll you be havin’?”

“I’ll get the strawberry, please. It’s a happy flavor! What about you, Chara?”

“I’ll get the double chocolate.”

“Kay, that’ll be 4.75.”

We paid the ice cream man for our ice cream and went over to sit on a park bench. We sat for a little while, watching the kids play. All of the kids were wearing stripes, of course, because that is what kids do. Frisk and I were wearing stripes too.

“Do you really think I’m worthy to be a star?”

“Chara, we’re both as worthy as you could possibly imagine!”

She stood up on the bench and jumped as high as she could.

“Look, Chara, I’m a shooting star!”

“You’re the brightest star!”

“You are too, Chara. We both are!”

We both laughed at that.

I noticed I was sweating, and the ice cream was melting in my hands. It was really hot. 

“It’s burning outside, I’m melting! Let’s go swimming at the lake!”Frisk said.

“That sounds amazing!”

Frisk and I ran over to the lake and jumped in with our clothes on. I was wearing my favorite green and yellow striped shirt, and Frisk was wearing her favorite, her blue and purple one.

I screamed. “It’s freezing, Frisk! Why did you make me do this?”

“Oh, you’ll get used to it!”

We swam for a long while, and we were having lots of fun. But then the sky starting looking weird, though it was still as hot and humid as ever.

I just decided to ignore it. After all, we were having so much fun.

One thing that I noticed was that Frisk’s flower didn’t fall out of her hair. It was staying there, even though we were playing in the water.

I guess it was a clip, so it would not come out that easily.

The wind started picking up, and then we heard thunder. I looked around and I couldn’t find the shore, we had gone so far out.

“Uhhh,Frisk? We need to get out of here. Fast!”

“Yeah! I think the shore was…”

She turned and saw only water every which way.

“…maybe this way? Ugh, I can’t tell!”

We swam the way she said to go, and we swam for a while. Still no shore. I was starting to panic. 

The wind was really picking up, and it was moving the water. I couldn’t see anything.

“ Frisk! Frisk, this isn’t the right way! We need to find another way, fast!”

There was no response.

“ Frisk?Frisk, where are you? Answer me, please!”

I continued yelling for the longest time and using all my energy, swimming through the water to try to find her. 

My voice was getting hoarse. I was yelling and yelling, and there was still no response.

Eventually, the storm died down, and I was still looking and calling for Frisk. She was nowhere to be found. Nowhere at all!

I was really worried now, and I was starting to lose hope. Finally, I saw something floating in the water.

I swam over to it as fast as I could, even though I was very tired.

It was Frisk’s yellow flower clip. The one she wore every day. The one I gave her when I first met her six years ago when we were only six years old.

“ Frisk?”

My voice cracked at the end. Since the clip wasn’t coming out before in the water, I knew that this was no accident.

Frisk had taken out her clip on purpose. The only reason I could think of for her doing that was for me to find it. I realized then that she wasn’t coming back.

When I returned home, I quietly walked in, shut the door, and walked to my room without so much as acknowledging my dad.

I walked up to my room. The rain had died down, but it was still pattering.

 I don’t know how long I sat there, at the window, not even thinking, just watching the rain. I couldn’t feel anything. 

I could not even acknowledge the fact that Frisk, my only light, the north star in my life, guiding me through every step of the way, was gone. It was simply not so.

I thought that maybe, if I just went out to Frisk’s little treehouse, she would be in there, reading, or humming, or drawing, or something! Doing something,  _anything_ , anything that was keeping her busy and there was a reason she was not coming up to see me.

Maybe Frisk was not feeling well. 

I refused to acknowledge that she was not feeling anything at all.

I know that when morning came, I was still staring at the window. Denying myself, and denying the truth! I could convince myself she was still there! I was great at lying to myself.

And I was slowly seeing those lies crumble before me.

Memories were resurfacing, and sadness, and regret. I thought about my mom, and my brother. How they had not survived.

How I couldn’t be there for Frisk! 

If I was only there for her, everything would be okay. I could believe that she was actually in her treehouse.

I could not bring myself to go out into my backyard and check.

I was a bit hungry, so I got up. Since Frisk was not feeling well, or maybe she had slept in, I thought I could make breakfast for just me and not her today. But maybe I could brew some tea for her. Her favorite kind, Golden flower tea. 

But then I stopped.

It… it was a really empty feeling. I could not feel anything.

I put down the teabag I was about to use.

I tried to feel, to feel anything, but I couldn’t. And I could not find the motivation to do anything either.

Suddenly, I did not feel like eating. It was just too much effort.

I couldn’t bring myself out of this state of apathy.

It was a miracle when I brought myself outside. I just started walking. Maybe something out here could make me feel  _something._ Anything. Just some emotion.

I was wearing her flower. Her yellow flower looked good with my reddish-brown hair. I wished my hair could be a different color.Frisk had the same color.. So why couldn’t it just be blond, l, or black, or red or  _purple_  or anything? Anything other than her color!

My shirt was wet. So was my face. I didn’t even notice I had been crying.

I also didn’t notice that I had been running. Running until I was at the park again.

I saw the lake.

But it was pretty far away. I was in a different part of the park, the side I’d never been to.

There were lots of bushes here. And trees. Lots of trees. 

This would be a great place to play hide-and-seek, I thought.  _Not that I had anybody to play it with, though._

Oh, yeah. That hurt.

I started wandering around the bushes, and I went through some bushes and there was a little clearing. 

It seemed like the grass was greener in this little space.

There was a tree here. There was also a vine wrapped around the tree. This vine had flowers on it. The very same type of flower I wore in my hair.

I just sat down. Right there, on the ground below the tree, fiddling with the blades of grass on the ground.

I liked this place. It comforted me. A lot.

I think Frisk would have liked this place.

When I saw the sun was setting, I knew I had to return home, or else my father would get worried.

Now all I felt was sadness. A raw sadness that just made me go quiet, and fall into my little hole. The familiar, deep, dark hole that hurt when you hit the bottom. The hole that was too deep to get out of on my own.

That was my kind of sadness.

But at least I felt something, now. It wasn’t a good something. But it was something.

When I was unresponsive in the days, weeks, following, my neighbor, Thiago tried to approach me. My father had given up trying, and I assume he asked Thiago to comfort me.

Thiago came over a lot, after that. He tried to talk to me, and I never really responded. I just sort of tuned him out.

This one day, I had come over to his house. I had been asked to.

Again, I just sat there, unresponsive.

But I remember that he took my hand, slowly, and put a paintbrush in it. Then he brought my hand to the canvas, and guided my hand to paint a picture. 

I didn’t really know what we were painting until it was finished.

I actually talked to him this time.

“Wh-why did you have me paint this Thiago?”

It was a garden wall, and growing up the wall were vines, and on the vines were yellow flowers. Ones that resembled the flower I was wearing.

“I thought you would like it.”

“I guess, thank you.”

“Do you want to keep it, Chara?”

“No! I mean, no, thank you. It is a beautiful picture, I think you should keep it.”

“Does it remind you of something?”

“I guess-I guess I just miss her.”

“Her?”

I hesitated for a long moment. He patiently waited for me to speak. I sighed.

“Yeah, her.”

Before he could respond, I just got up and left, muttering a half-formed apology when I closed the door to his room.

I suppose being with him, a lot, even if it was only subconsciously, helped me to feel better. If only slightly.

He was a really kind boy, and he was a good friend, really. But I could not deal with someone else at the moment. So I only felt half-bad when I walked out his door without saying goodbye.

I ran to my special place. The little clearing in the park.

I had been there many times in the past few weeks. Every day, without fail, I had come to visit this place.

I always sat in the same place, right in front of the tree. Sometimes I played with the grass, sometimes I played with the flowers, and sometimes I just cried.

I just cried. Or stared off, if I couldn’t cry anymore. I stared at the sky until the wind picked up and I listened to the wind.

I started to feel emotions again. Not good emotions. Mostly sadness, and anger. But at least it was  _something._ I was feeling  _some_ sort of emotion. 

Sometimes I went there in the night. I stared up at the stars. The stars were beautiful. But I just remembered about how Frisk said how she loved the stars. And how she was a star. I remember, she once wrote in a notebook, “I’m a star, haven’t you noticed? As the world is spinning, I’ll come into view. Haven’t you noticed I shine the brightest in the sky? I can guide everyone out of the dark of the night. Now everyone can see me shine.”

So the stars made me feel sad. I was adding so many things to my mental list of things that depressed me since Frisk was gone.

Once, when I was there at night it was the end of summer. I saw the most beautiful scene. There were fireflies floating everywhere.

 Pinpricks of golden light were dancing around on the darkened field, floating across the grass and flying in the air. The golden spots contrasted greatly with the silver slit of the moon against the black sky.  

It was truly beautiful, and it should have been happy. It really should have. But all I felt was an empty sadness. Because Frisk would have enjoyed it much more than me. But she wasn’t here.

She wasn’t here!

Whenever it rained, I got angry. I got angry at the rain, because it was the rain’s faultFrisk was here! The rain  _killed_ Frisk! She was  _dead,_ she was  _gone,_ because of the rain. 

But soon enough that anger led to sadness. Raw sadness, that sent me falling even deeper into my dark, gaping hole of depression.

When Frisk first died, I fell into that hole. I didn’t feel like getting up. So I just stayed down there, lying on the bottom of that pit. I could’ve climbed out if I just grabbed an outreaching hand.

Thiago tried to help me. He reached his hand down. My hand kept slipping from his grasp, and eventually I just ignored it. It did not help.

I wish I had Frisk’s hand. But she was gone.

So I just tried to get up on my own. But I kept stumbling, and tripping. I couldn’t get up.

So I just sat there. At the bottom of my hole. Against the tree. It was really pitiful. I just felt sorry for myself.

Every day, I returned there. Every day I went to the special place, and sat against the tree.

I know thatFrisk would have wanted me to tell her story. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. If I had died in her place, she would have continued on to tell my story. She would have done way better, carrying on my memory. Anybody would have done better than me.

Time passed. It was fall now. Leaves were starting to fall, and it was getting cold. But I still returned to my place. I just dressed warmly.

I had been going more, and more, and more. I was disappearing more and more. My father had not even approached me about it. He gave me the space I needed.

Soon, it snowed. It snowed early this year, in October. I had taken to wearing all white, and I stopped wearing my shirts that were green and yellow. Most of my shirts and sweaters were like that. They sometimes had one or two stripes, and sometimes more. But now I was wearing only white, not even stripes, and I’d like to think I would have just disappeared if not the yellow flower I wore.

My eyes filled with tears. All the time. I would think about, if only, if only, Frisk had lived. Everything would be okay. Everything would be okay.

I could never tell you how much pain I was in. I cannot emphasize how much I was hurting, but it was so much.

It was so, so, so painful. I started sobbing, just thinking about it.

Imagine the person you care about the most, suddenly dying. You would not be able to see them every day. And if there was no one to comfort you. It was just sad, waking up every day to nothing new. Just waking up to depression and sadness. Now multiply that pain by 100.

Welcome to my hole.

I also had nobody to comfort me, really. Thiago couldn’t really help. My mom was dead! My brother was dead! My best friend was dead! I was in so, so much pain.

I  _hurt._ I hurt, so, so badly. My body was wracked with sobs, sometimes. Why did I have to  _care_ this much?

My heart was broken. It was aching, in my chest, sharp, throbbing, never ending. Please, just let me move on! I wished I could just move on. I would have traded all of my tomorrows for just one more yesterday.

Just one more yesterday! Was that too much to ask for? All of my tomorrows! For just one more yesterday!  _Please!_

Please! Or maybe, if I could just go back, if we could’ve not gone swimming, gone inside, gone anywhere else that day. Played with the hose, instead of playing in the lake.Anything other than swimming! Then I wouldn’t be here, in this enormous pain that I couldn’t escape.

_How I miss yesterday,_ I thought, _and how I let it fade away._

Nothing could relieve me from this pain. 

I rarely spoke. When I did, my voice was shaky. I was always on the brim of tears, and no one could help me. I was on my own.

All alone. I felt so lonely. So alone. There was no hand for me to grasp anymore, no hand to help me up after I fell. I was all alone.

I stopped being angry. Just sad, and lonely. Those two emotions blended together to reopen all the wounds that had been starting to heal.

I was sad all over again. When these new wounds started to close up, the overpowering loneliness and sadness filled me up with anguish. I was in a downward spiral of negative emotions. 

Falling deeper, and deeper, into my hole.

Heartache. Loneliness, misery. All tied into one feeling. A feeling that continued to resurface.

My special place became my only refuge. Even though it was snowing, and it was cold, the flowers were still there. They made me angry again.

I picked one, and tore it apart. Then I did it to another, and I stamped it on the ground. I did it to so many flowers, and by the end I was wailing.

The number of flowers that had been there when I first saw them had more than tripled. I was too tired to destroy them all.

So I just collapsed, into the snow, and wept. I don’t know how long it was, but I know that I cried myself out.

I was suddenly feeling nothing again. I was filled with empty feelings, and I couldn’t feel. I  _tried._ But I couldn’t feel anything.

I picked myself up and went home.

I went back to how I was acting in the beginning.

Thiago tried to reach out to me. He tried. It took a while. I don’t know how long I was like that, unable to feel any sort of emotion, in my state of apathy.

But Thiago just babbled on, trying to get me to feel, and to react. It worked, I suppose. I actually got irritated with him. He was  _annoying_ me, jabbering off about something. I got  _angry._ It was something, though.

I got so irritated, and I suppose all the time of not feeling anything had gotten to me. All these unexpressed emotions bubbled up inside of me and overflowed all at once. 

I snapped at him.

My voice was strong, this time. For the first time in a long while.

“Shut up!”

“W-what?”

“I said, shut up! Leave me alone!”

I got up quickly and ran as fast as I could out of his room. I heard him calling after me, but I just ignored him. 

But he didn’t follow me. Nobody came. Nobody came to help.

I ran to my special place and just cried. Sobbed, more like. I was wailing, painfully. Ugly crying, the type that moves your body and wracks your frame and hurts. My voice was hoarse, but I didn’t care. I was hiccuping a lot, too. I just cried, and cried, and cried and cried, and I know a lot of time passed.

I looked up to see the sun setting.

I just kept on crying.

I think I slept, a little, because when I looked up the sky was getting light again, and the sun was rising.

I was looking for something, here, in this place, but I didn’t know what. I hadn’t bothered trying to figure out, because I clearly could not find it here. I was looking in the wrong place.

But, still.

As I saw the sunrise, I was reminded, again, of Frisk. She loved the sunrise.

But this time, it did not depress me. Watching it filled me with… I don’t know what feeling it was. It was a new, raw emotion, that I had never felt before.

Hope, I think. Motivation, and hope.

I felt… okay, for the first time. It was strange, to say the least.

I was filled with a strange contentment, as my tears were drying.

Frisk never felt sorry for herself, I remembered. 

Watching the sunrise, I almost felt like Frisk was there with me.

And, so, I talked to her. With this newfound hope I had. Hope for a better life.

“You,Frisk, are the crack of sunlight, the crack of the dawn, in my dim world. I know this hope I found… was you.”

And so I came back home. Thiago and Dad were really worried about me, and where I had gone, and if I was okay. And I knew that I was okay, for once. I was actually okay.

And I was  _happy._  I had never felt that way before. It was sort of a new emotion. I mean, I felt happy with my life before, but I now realize what was missing. I was never really happy. I had been lying to myself.

And when Frisk died, my walls of false happiness and hope were crushed, and they crumbled down. And so I had no foundation. I had fallen, and I kept falling, and falling, and falling, and I had no place to ground me.

But now, at the bottom of my deep hole, I had one foot up. I was starting to stand up, on my own, and I didn’t need help anymore.

And now I am on two feet, and I am more balanced than before. I am stronger, and I have built myself a foundation that will keep me from falling down again. 

I built my life back up. I built myself a new foundation, one of truth, and hope.

Because the thing I had been missing all my life was hope. Now, I had it.

I knew that I had to tell Frisk’s story. Her story deserved to be told.

And so I told everyone I could. I wrote poems about her, and I told people, as many as possible, about her. About how happy she was, even after everything she had gone through.

I wrote songs for her, and I decided to take on singing— for her. My voice wasn’t too bad after all.

And so I wrote songs about her, and for her. And I sang them. And published them. And people listened to them.

My favorite song I wrote about her was called the Brightest Stars. It went like this.

“Two bright stars in the sky at night.

Twinkling together, dazzling light.

One falls down, the other turns dimmer.

Falling star, a dying glimmer.

The sky turns dark, the fading night.

But stars keep shining, until the morning light. 

Stars return, to gleam again.

Brightest star in the sky again.

Bright star shining, burning bright

Bright star guiding, shedding light.

As the world keeps spinning, it comes into view.

Now everyone can see it, shining anew.

Brightening everyone’s night.

Shedding guidance and light.

Soon you will see, the world will go on turning.

Stars remain, forevermore returning.

As the world keeps spinning, it comes into view.

Now everyone can see it, shining anew.

As the world keeps spinning, it comes into view.

Now everyone can see it, shining anew.

Now everyone can see it, shining anew.”

And so Frisk’s story was told.

I’ve stopped going to my special place. I don’t need to, not anymore. I’m happy now. I don’t need to see the place of tears and smashed flowers.

I am proud of my hair now. I still wear Frisk’s flower, but now it brought me happiness, rather than pain.

My life, it really isn’t perfect. Far from it. But that’s okay.  _I_ ’ _m_ okay.

I used to think I was happy, but it was a lie. Now, I really am. I am truly happy. I’ve come to terms with my feelings, and I’ve finally said goodbye to my mother and brother, as well as Frisk.

I’ve really matured, and I’ve changed. A lot. But it’s for the better. And I have overcome my depression.

Look, I’ll never be  _okay._ But I’m okay. I will forever have a gaping hole in my heart.

Somehow, it’s all okay.

I thought about how Frisk and I were the brightest stars. 

The brightest stars do burn the quickest. That’s true. But, I know.

Stars may fade, but I’ll keep shining.


End file.
